SOMALIA FACES CATASTROPHE AS ETHIOPIANS CONTINUE TO FIGHT IN MOGADISHU

Mohamed Olad Hassan reports for The BBC that things are growing desperate for the civilian population in Mogadishu. The Ethiopians shelled the city's major market several days ago, killing and wounding dozens. Food supplies are scarce and some are living out in the open in rudimentary shelters made of twigs and other detritus.

"The once-bustling streets of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, are now eerily empty. The southern neighbourhoods are littered with the scars of recent fighting between the insurgents and Ethiopian-backed forces of the transitional government. Ethiopian tanks have taken up positions outside the houses of the hundreds of thousands of residents who have fled the city - estimated to be 60% of the city's population."

Somalia needs Ethiopian soldiers to go back to Ethiopia. Somalians need to be able to dictate their own government. It should not be left to the Ethiopians, who, by the way, are merely fronts for the Americans and Bush who encouraged them to invade.

The United States needs to pull its navy warships out of Somali waters. The U.S. Navy needs to stop shooting cruise missiles into Somali homes and villages. Irrational fear of Islamic Courts caused Bush and Cheney to interfere in Somalia, and today the miserable state of Somali civilians is the result.

Writes Hassan about a Somali family:

"Every morning destitute Somalis line up in their thousands to receive a handout of corn, beans and oil. "We sometimes line up for food early in the morning and go back to our children at sunset empty-handed," complains Fadumo Khalif, a 26-year-old pregnant mother, with a baby strapped to her back. "Sometimes the food runs out and sometimes the agencies do not come."